Ni Payment's

[bluemoon1]

Is there a way of finding out how much has been paid by an individual in any given year.
I know it is shown on wage slips etc, but suppose someone was out of work for a year and claiming NI only benefits where would that record of payments be logged?

[Peter Pedant]

well yes is the answer

records of NI payments ARE kept and I used to work in an office whose job was to count them up when someone retired and work out their pension
1968
I remember that someone aged 65 had never missed a weeks work because all the stamps - yes every one = was there !
Paper records

but that of course was fifty years ago but I can believe that the govt has failed to keep records as that means they have missed out on an opportunity to cut someones pension

I cant imagine that you can get anyone else's records besides your own unless you are an employer perhaps .....

and this is how you do it

https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

[hc4361]

If the person is out of work the first place to ask is the local job centre. They'll be able to point them in the right direction at least.

[Dogsbody2]

What's important with NI (for the Full Basic State Pension) is not how much per se you have actual paid in NI, but whether you have earned a QUALIFYING YEAR (for pension purposes). You get a qualifying year if you earned at least the Lower Earning Level over the tax year, which for the current tax year is £112 per week or about £5.8k per year. Now if in part of that tax year you have been out of work and claiming JSA then you get credits for each week you are registered, so the actual amount of earnings required to show adequate income for a qualifying year goes down in proprtion to the weeks out of work.

That's how the Basic State Pension works. Above the £5.8k earnings figure, the new Workplace Pension comes into play.

The actual amount of NI paid by an individual (provided above the minimum) doesn't increase the Basic State Pension but has (until recently) increased what is paid out as State Second Pension (or SERPS before that). These come to an end as of April 2016, because the Basic State Pension is getting bumped up (though not everyone retiring with the required 35 minimum qualifying years gets the full amount for reasons that are too complicated to try and explain in less than 20000 words).

So what's important is getting NI qualifying years.

Payment amounts are given on P60s and P45s if you leave a job mid-year.

[EDDIE51]

Dogsbody2. you seem to know about pensions, can you answer this please? After April 16th the state second pension no longer exists?.
I get my state pension next week , but due to SERPs payments I get an extra £41 a week. I was moaning that I missed out on the extra state pension due to start on 16th April, but from what you say it makes little difference to me at least ,is that correct? Thanks

[bluemoon1]

EDDIE51, if you have a question to ask, why not start a new thread?

[bluemoon1]

Thank you Peter and Dogs

[Dogsbody2]

Yes, for you, it seems it makes no difference. That is what the NI people in Newcastle has presumably told you.
For others who have earned less than you and retire imminently, they may well feel they are losing out as they will have a smaller State Pension than that after April. For those with no other income in old age, they get the old Basic State Pension of about £115 pw plus pension credit whatever that brings it up to around £155 total per week.
Over the next few years the NI people are calculating the pension value to new retirees using both new and old rules and the pensioner gets the higher of the two methods of calculation.

[EDDIE51]

Thanks dogsbody

[EDDIE51]

A new thought , so if someone had been really diligent and hardworking in putting the maximum into their state pension they are actually going to lose out from April?

[Dogsbody2]

The maximum is hard to define Eddie.

I think from what you have said elsewhere that you are close to State Pension age - 65. The Longbenton people should have sent you pension estimates based on the old and new way of working it out, and you get the higher amount. I'm not sure for how many years this old/new test carries on for.

The 'old' way of working included the Basic State Pension at about £115 pw plus various adds that individuals may have 'earned' over their working life. The first one was called Graduated Pension Scheme and it ran from 1961 to 1975. A few people retiring now may have an element of this but tiny as earnings were so tiny then. The next one was SERPS, which ran from 1978 to 2002. It was earnings related, so the more you earned, the more you get credited. The third one was State Second Person or S2P which superceded SERPS and runs until April 2016 when it is abolished.

Many retirees from April 2016 for the next few years will actually get more from the old scheme than the new flat rate, because of the add-ons from SERPS and S2P, which added to £115 approx will total more than the £155 approx new flat rate.

So the maximum state pension depends on what you earned.